Luz fell back onto Amity’s bed with a sigh. Edric said he’d likely be getting ice cream soon but for once she wasn’t in the mood for sweets. She was too much of a mess right now. Or maybe not enough? She shouldn’t be here after all. For so many reasons. But she was here. She was lying in some noble girl’s bed, staring at the ceiling, dreaming of being able to hold her crush in her arms while she let out all of her pain into Luz’s chest. She was waiting for someone who made her heart race instead of using the fact that Boscha ran off during the performance as an excuse to run away.

She only had pain because of her though. That’s what she told herself at least. She had been the one to interrupt things. If she hadn’t, Amity might have finished her songs. Her confusing, wonderful, terrifying, beautiful songs. Songs that she should be able to push out of her mind as just ones she liked instead of hoping they might be for her. Instead of wanting to scream to the world that there indeed wasn’t any mountain too high. Instead of wanting to drink so many pina coladas that she could at least pretend to like them.

And then that stupid ring of fire. Luz closed her eyes at the imagery but it only let her imagination flourish. Of her mother smiling at her while she danced in the flames before grabbing her by the arm and yanking her out. After all, chances were weird, and she loved that her daughter took chances, but then she would be grounded. Yelled at. She’d keep apologizing to people for things she ‘loved’ about Luz and then camp…

She did these things for her benefit. So that Luz would be a functional human. That’s why Luz had her rules. Held back. She was still a mess even after everything she had tried to learn. But maybe she could do it, at least for tonight. To listen to them for once. Amity needed her to be able to, even if just tonight. She was going to be upset when she came in and needed Luz to be calm enough to listen and be on her level rather than the ball of weird she always was.

And then the door clicked open and Amity walked in. Amity, whose dress now looked so much worse as she slouched and hung her head low. Amity, whose makeup was an absolute mess from her sobbing. Amity, who looked so sad that she could drown the world in tears.

Amity, who was so beautiful that Luz’s thoughts vanished in a second as she leaped right back into the fire and rushed over to give her crush a hug. “You were amazing down there!”

The serious girl didn’t fight the hug but her arms stayed at her sides. She stayed quiet. Stayed small. Where the flames couldn’t get her. Luz was happy like this after all. Emira was right. She made sure not to cry though. She needed Luz to just go after all. She couldn’t handle her right now. All she wanted was a chance to let her tears out and get some sleep and she didn’t want her crush to have to go through that. Not for stuff she wouldn’t get.

Luz waited a little bit as she just enjoyed holding Amity before grabbing her shoulders and stepping back. “Amity? I-I know the end of it was a bit rough, but everything else was great! Even Boscha’s song!”

Amity glanced up as her crush stuck her tongue out at her. She doubted she was actually okay with one of the songs being like that. They hated each other too much for that. Why had she included that dumb song? It hadn’t even been impressive for her to play or sing. It had simply felt right to have been there, but if she had chosen the songs because of her heart, she shouldn’t have left any doubt on who her heart was after. Who she had hoped to talk to her parents afterwards about. Amity decided to keep her head up though and prayed to Titan that Luz would get that her eyes weren’t asking for help but for quiet.

Luz fidgeted a bit at the silence that followed. She should shut up. She needed to just shut up. To push all of this back and let Amity talk. But the silence was deafening to her and instead of telling her all the reasons she shouldn’t be there, her brain was on a loop on why this happened in the first place and how she needed to fix that.

So the normally energetic girl sighed as she nervously wrapped Amity back into her arms. “H-Hey, um, I’ll try and shut up but first, well, I wanted to say sorry. I know I should have been quiet but that second song I was there for was just… great. And a lot more what I’m used to hearing. And made me feel so warm. And happy. And-”

For a half second Luz’s mind tried to stop her. Tried to get her to stop rambling as the thoughts of the song only made the flames around her rage higher and higher. “-Made me wonder if it might have been about me at all.”

Amity lowered her head as she realized Luz wasn’t going to leave unless she said something. She wouldn’t shut up, even if she claimed she would. The twins were the exact same. She normally liked it with Luz though. But then Emira’s words ran around and around in her head, taunting her like someone going ‘na na na na’ over and over again.

“No, Luz. I just chose the songs at random. Now can I please go to bed in peace?”

And suddenly there were no flames to dance in as Luz’s face fell. She glanced away for a second before whispering, “Okay. I’ll… I’ll see you tomorrow at least?”

Luz only got a nod in response but still gave her crush the brightest smile she could manage before saying, “Sleep well,” and walking out of the room. Once the door was closed though, she shut her eyes and began sprinting out of the house, her heavy footfalls echoing through the house briefly. In Amity’s mind though, they lasted for the rest of the night.

======+++++======

Amity’s heart dropped as she turned the corner to her locker and saw Boscha and Luz standing around it talking to each other. The real problem wasn’t that the two were there, though she would have liked a little more time to get over her being such a colossal idiot before having to face both of the people she hurt last night. No, it was that she really wished Luz wasn’t holding her guitar. The last thing she wanted was her asking if she’d like some strings to go with her piano. But if she ran off, she’d probably just hurt Luz again.

So she strode over and sighed as she looked between the two, who were being surprisingly calm in talking about what music they liked. She kept expecting the two to start screaming about how metal was better than rock or vice versa. But they seemed to actually be getting along for once. “Morning. Sorry about last night.”

Amity’s two friends glanced at each other before Boscha sighed. “Once the two of us actually talked about all of this, we realized we weren’t supposed to be there, were we? After all, I’d have probably been told about it before the day of otherwise, wouldn’t I?”

Luz then smiled as she nervously plucked at the strings on her guitar. “And you might have put duct tape over my mouth to stop me from being… me.”

Boscha turned away and whispered, “So we’re willing to just forget the songs and what not. It’s not like you expected us to ever hear them after all.”

Amity blinked a few times before letting her cheeks turn red slightly. Her two idiots. Willing to go so far just for her. It made her smile as her thoughts drifted to the songs she sang and she finally said, “Please understand, that’s all I ask of you.”

Both girls turned bright red as Amity came closer to her locker and tickled it.. “After all, if no mountain is too tall for you two, then I see no reason not to dance in the flames if you like getting caught in the rain. After all, love dreams are nice,” Amity paused as she glanced up and saw both of her friends looking like they were about to pass out instead of her for once, but finished with, “but my mom tasked me to make a romance set and since friends are the closest I have to romance, friends are what I used to inspire it.”

In Amity’s mind, it was a safe compromise. They could still know how much they mattered to her but she had deniability through one little lie. In Boscha’s mind, ‘we’re just best friends’ in her own voice was screaming on repeat to drown out whatever other bullshit was trying to speak up. In Luz’s mind, there were about a million smaller versions of herself causing a civil war on how to take this. “Protect the otters!”

Boscha and Amity looked at Luz, who smacked herself with her own guitar when she tried to slap her mouth shut. The serious girl blinked a few times before a tactical change in conversation was necessary. “So… You play something too, Luz?”

Luz raised her guitar over her head before shouting, “Heck yeah! In fact,” she said as she hopped up, “you’re looking at the best shredder on the Boiling Isles!”

Amity’s eye twitched as the sound of Luz’s fast and sudden strumming filled the air. She then turned as Boscha said, “No, you’re not. You are looking at a pretty great drummer though, if you ask me.”

Why did she have her doubts about that? “Well, that’s… great.” She then turned back to Luz and asked, “Why did you bring it to school though?”

“Well,” Luz said as she calmed down and began to play something that didn’t make Amity’s ears bleed, “there’s a talent show coming up and I was thinking maybe we could be a band for it. You’d be perfect on lead vocals!”

Amity paled for a second before letting out a nervous giggle. After all, if they were willing to climb any mountain for her, she needed to try and at least meet them in the middle. “Yeah, that sounds great. Wonderful.”

Boscha smiled and Luz cheered while Amity shook her head at her two idiots with a sigh. The idea of turning her music to more than just pieces to play for her parents though… She liked the thought and maybe she’d be able to make the two competent? Luz then let out another harsh chord and Amity groaned internally at herself about what exactly had she gotten herself into.